Albrecht Sensch

Projectleader „Virtual Konzerthaus“, Konzerthaus Berlin

Albrecht Sensch has been working as head of the “Virtual Konzerthaus” on the development and design of new teaching techniques at the Konzerthaus Berlin since August 2016. Before moving to Berlin, he worked as a coordinator at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt on the development of the Digital Collection of the Museum and as well on the Virtual Reality Tour “Time Machine”. Prior to this, he finished his master’s degree in Strategy and Innovation at Maastricht University.

ABOUT VIRTUAL QUARTET

During the last years, the Konzerthaus Berlin has created a diverse program for people who are interested to learn more about classical music. Since 2016 we challenge ourselves to appeal to a wider audience and try to inspire young listeners to listen more closely. This is now expanded through exciting and engaging digital touchpoints that are able to innovatively widen the experiences of users about the education of classical music. With this new approach, we intend not to replace the analogue concert with new modern digital concepts: Rather we want to create a better educational understanding for new listeners to be able to enjoy a classical concert.

In this context, the “Virtual Quartet” is an innovative experience about the education of classical music in new digital mediums such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). The aim is to depict a classical quartet and to represent them in a virtual environment through VR glasses or AR technology. We are able to give the user special interactions that are only possible in a digital environment: Four markers that will indicate the position of the four musicians independently. The user can watch the movement and interaction of the quartet closely and from all directions. It is also possible to interact with the four separate instrumental parts – this allows for the user to better understand the complex interplay of the instruments. Alongside with other digital possibilities, we try to ensure that the interaction with this touchpoint is done in a simple and intuitive way. In order to actually make the quartet appear as a “hologram”-like figure, a special recording technique is used to capture the artists from all sides as a volumetric video recording, which is captured during their performance. This is currently one of the world’s first attempts to use this technique in the context of cultural education.